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Email from Missy Setters

I had to congratulate her on the photos of the "actual attendance" and asked if not waiting another day was worth it. #WEARELATECH

We invited La Tech despite being told on Monday, Nov 26 by the AD that they wouldn't play a Sun Belt Team. Then that Wed, the AD said they would be willing to play anyone. We were asked by the WAC commissioner that Thursday if we would invite La Tech that day. When a conference commissioner asks a bowl to invite a team it is always because he has an understanding with that school that they will accept. Unfortunately for all involved, especially 31 seniors, that didn't turn out to be the case. We did invite the Bulldogs to participate, and waited quite a while for a response. No response came and when we called again, late that Saturday we were told they would wait it out on other options. There were 71 qualifiers at that time. Our committee of 25, of which I do not have a vote, felt that after being asked to invite Tech and then turned down that they needed to go in a different direction. Our committee voted unanimously on Friday, Nov 30 to invite both La Tech and ULM. Bowls typically lock in their choices/plans by Saturday night based on the outcomes of championship games and what other games plan on doing.

I would also like to add that back in the spring we were asked by Tech's AD if we would be willing to write a letter of recommendation to Conference USA on Tech's behalf and our executive committee voted unanimously to do it.

I would also add that I have close friends whose son was a senior player this year at Tech. The disappointment hit close to home.

I hope this gives you some insight into the series of events. I would also add that if two other bowls had agreements with La Tech, then why is our game taking the brunt of the frustration when we are in fact the only bowl that did invite them.

Re: Email from Missy Setters

Originally Posted by johnnylightnin

Looks like the committee made the wrong decision. Was punishing Bruce worth it?

i thought it ironic that all those empty seats were red and blue which could represent the tech fans that could have filled them had indy waited. he said she said, its over, i guess we all need to learn from it.

Re: Email from Missy Setters

There should not have been an arbitrary time ultimatum attached to their invitation. The Liberty Bowl waited to see how the BCS match-ups were determined (as did Chick-fil-a and Cotton)--why couldn't the I-Bowl wait for the best possible scenario? The wanted to "stick it" to Tech and ended up hurting themselves and S'port/Bossier in the process. LaTech alum in this region should hold them accountable for the indiscretion.

Re: Email from Missy Setters

I still believe our administration thumbed its nose at the I-Bowl during the entire process. In the end, both the bowl and our university was hurt, but I don't blame the bowl for moving forward without Tech. They had no indication that we would ever accept an invitation from them.

Re: Email from Missy Setters

Originally Posted by theprofessor

I still believe our administration thumbed its nose at the I-Bowl during the entire process. In the end, both the bowl and our university was hurt, but I don't blame the bowl for moving forward without Tech. They had no indication that we would ever accept an invitation from them.

+1
Egos got in the way on all sides and the wrong decisions were made. No one won this one.
And everything is the same as it was before. I guess we will just continue to do the same thing expecting a differernt result.

Re: Email from Missy Setters

Originally Posted by boxerdog

There should not have been an arbitrary time ultimatum attached to their invitation. The Liberty Bowl waited to see how the BCS match-ups were determined (as did Chick-fil-a and Cotton)--why couldn't the I-Bowl wait for the best possible scenario? The wanted to "stick it" to Tech and ended up hurting themselves and S'port/Bossier in the process. LaTech alum in this region should hold them accountable for the indiscretion.

Her email is very telling -- one, it's sent from her ipad the day of the game (someone's a little bent out of shape) and two -- the last paragraph - why are we taking the brunt?! LOL

Re: Email from Missy Setters

More from Setters... all I asked was "was your committee better off not waiting one more day?"

So if there was a deal in place with the Liberty Bowl, as has been stated by Mr VanDeVelde, then why would Tech have needed us to wait in the first place?

I would also point out that immediately after selection Sunday, we received phone calls from a number of Tech alums as well as a large number of people who are sponsors of the bowl as well as a tech alums, apologizing to us for the way it was handled.

Why did we receive comments from national media as well as other bowls asking us "what were THEY thinking?"

The CEO of our title sponsor is a graduate of Tech and he was disgusted by the way Tech handled it. He was also disgusted by the fact that he received an email from someone in the Tech athletic department back in August stating that Tech was working with ESPNU to have AdvoCare's logos digitally removed from the field for the Texas A&M game. Rather than going to talk to him as an alum about a sponsorship.

And just as a side note, ESPN stated there was absolutely no validity to his claims.

There is probably blame to go all around, but it certainly does not fall solely on our committee.

Re: Email from Missy Setters

Her email is very telling -- one, it's sent from her ipad the day of the game (someone's a little bent out of shape) and two -- the last paragraph - why are we taking the brunt?! LOL

I think her point was: Why aren't more fans pissed off at the Liberty Bowl? Plenty of us are. Plenty more were pissed off at BVD. Others are pissed at everyone involved. She just isn't hearing from those people.